S3EP14: Joy in the Ruins: Mattie Jackson on Grief, God, and Getting Back Up

Let's Be Cleere

Cleere

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

5 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What’s it like to grow up with a front-row seat to fame, only to find yourself center stage in a story you never saw coming?

In this episode, Cleere sits down with the radiant and real Mattie Jackson—author, speaker, podcast host, and daughter of country music legend Alan Jackson—for a conversation that’s equal parts heartache and healing, grit and grace.

Mattie opens up about what it was like to grow up in the spotlight, and how even that couldn’t prepare her for the deep grief of losing her husband just months into marriage. She shares how grief can shape us into people we barely recognize—not because we’re weak, but because we’re suddenly living in a world we never prepared for. And yet… God.

This episode is rich with wisdom, full of laughter, and tenderly honest. Together, we talk about:

• What happens when your life no longer looks like your life

• The “limbo years” where God rebuilds slowly and sweetly

• How to stay open to joy, even when it feels like betrayal

• Why grief doesn’t cancel your calling—it deepens it

• What Mattie’s learning now about love, dating, and rebuilding

Whether you’re walking through loss, navigating transition, or just wondering how to hold joy and sorrow at the same time, this conversation will remind you: even in the ruins, God is still writing beauty. And He doesn’t waste a single tear.

Find Mattie Jackson here:

• Website: mattiejackson.net

• Instagram: @mattiejackson

• Books: Lemons on Friday and Through the Valley of Grief – available wherever books are sold

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey friend, welcome to the Let's Be Clear podcast. I'm your host, Clear Cherry Reeves. I'm a wife, mom,
0:09.2	creator of the clearly stated brand, author, speaker, and professional over user of exclamation marks.
0:16.4	But that's because, spoiler alert, talking about Jesus and the ways that he is moving in our everyday lives makes me so excited.
0:26.9	Around here, we believe two things.
0:29.4	One, you are immeasurably loved and liked by Jesus just as you are.
0:34.6	And two, it's our absolute joy to call out where we see him radiating in you,
0:41.4	especially when you struggle to see it.
0:44.6	Life just hits differently when you see it from a heavenly perspective, doesn't it?
0:48.7	So let's dig deep and chase after that abundant life God has for us.
0:54.1	I'm clear, and this is the Let's Be Clear
0:57.0	podcast. Let's get started. Hello guys. Welcome to another episode of Let's Be Clear. Today, I have the joy of sitting down. I wish it was in person, Maddie, with someone whose story is tender, raw, resilient, and incredibly rich in hope. Maddie Jackson. You may know her as the daughter of country music legend, Alan Jackson,
1:29.6	but behind the legacy is a woman carving her own path of faith, purpose, and healing. Maddie
1:36.0	is an author, a podcast, host, the founder of, how do you say Nash? Do you say Nash? Nash. Nashville.
1:44.1	Nashiv. Okay. A non say Nash? Nash. Nash.
1:44.3	Okay.
1:45.0	A nonprofit supporting women in transition.
1:48.2	Her life has walked through great love and devastating loss.
1:52.0	And yet she continues to write, speak, show up, especially now as a mama to her precious little boy.
1:58.5	And so today we're just talking about that.
2:00.3	Honesty, intention, grit, grace, the journey of grief.
2:05.4	And I'm just so thankful.
2:07.5	Thank you for being here.
	...

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